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Ferrari’s New F138 2013 Formula 1 Car is Evolutionary Rather Than Revolutionary

Saturday, February 2, 2013

On Friday, February 1, Ferrari unveiled the new single-seater with which Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will fight for the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship.

The new car is named the F138, with the first two digits standing for the year (2013) and the “8” for the number of cylinders as well as the eighth season the team is using that configuration.

With F1 switching to V6 turbocharged engines, the project 664 (as it is code-named) is a development of last year’s F2012 rather than a clean-sheet design. Of course, practically every one of its nearly six thousand components has been revised for maximum efficiency but the basics, such as the suspension layout and the engine, follow the same philosophy.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Bruce McLaren was a man of many talents. Born in 1937 in New Zealand, he was not only a racing driver but also a racecar designer and engineer.

His racing career started when he was 14 years old. He won the 1959 U.S. Grand Prix at the age of 22 years and 80 days, becoming the youngest driver at the time to win a Formula 1 race. In 1963, he founded his own team, named Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd., but continued to race for Cooper.

He quit in 1965 and announced that he would enter F1 next year with his own team. In 1966 he won the 24 Hour of Le Mans along with Chris Amon in a Ford GT40 and, two years later, gave his team its maiden F1 win at Spa.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

We can safely say that McLaren is showing off its upcoming P1 hypercar quite a lot lately – not that we’re complaining, of course. Barely a week after releasing a new video and a set of images of an “XP” (for “experimental”) test car with a black and white camouflage that did nothing to hide its lines, the company chose its 2013 Formula 1 contender’s launch to flaunt the P1 again. Read more »

Celebrities to Race New Mazda6 on the Sidelines of the 2013 F1 Australian GP

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

As part of a large-scale promotion for the launch of the new Mazda6 in Australia, the Japanese carmaker is organizing the star-packed Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge, which will take place during the 2013 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in the middle of March.

Mazda said it plans to have 20 "big name celebrities" behind the wheels of an equal number of cars, each of which will come in different body and racing livery colors.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Last November, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, hosted its inaugural Formula 1 race, which was also the penultimate event of the 2012 season. Austin was the 10th track to host the U.S. GP and it marked F1’s return in the country after a five-year absence.

According to the Texas comptroller’s office, the newly constructed circuit was also the state’s top seller of alcohol, i.e. beer, wine and mixed drinks, with US$2.8 million. Total alcohol sales in the city in November reached US$48.4 million, a 23 percent increase compared to November 2011.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

The late legendary NASCAR racer and team owner Dale Earnhardt Sr. had famously said, “Second place is just the first place loser”. Sebastian Vettel, who on November 26 won his third consecutive Formula 1 world championship with Red Bull Racing (RBR), thinks along the same lines: “When you win, everything is crazy. When you lose, you have time for yourself, no one is interested”, he says.

Everyone is certainly interested in Vettel and Red Bull Racing, which also won its third constructors’ title in a row this season. What makes their accomplishments even more astonishing is the fact that the RBR team was formed in 2005 and its first win came in the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix.

Monday, November 26, 2012

It’s not the first time that the Formula 1 title has gone down to the wire. Far from it, since any fan of the sport can certainly recall some epic finales.

In 2008, for example, when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa crossed the finish line, he had won not only the Brazilian Grand Prix but also the world championship as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was in sixth place. The latter, though, passed Timo Glock in the second-to-last corner and moved up to fifth, clinching the title by a single point and leaving Massa second.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Fans or even random people popping up behind reporters during live television broadcasts for their 15 seconds of fame (or infamy, depends on which way you see it) is nothing new, but how journalists react in these kind of situations can greatly differ.

While some reporters are surprised and perhaps even lose their words or break into laughter when this happens, we had none of that with KVUE TV's Quita Culpepper, who was covering a report from downtown Austin during Formula 1 Fan Fest on Saturday night when a playful woman came up from behind.

Monday, November 19, 2012

It’s true that, despite having half a century of history behind it, Formula 1 has never really caught on with motorsport fans in the United States.

Nevertheless, last week it returned to the Land of the Free after a seven-year hiatus. The last time an F1 GP was staged on American soil it was in Indianapolis; now, it took place at a brand-new track in Austin, Texas.

With the two title contenders, Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, being close in the drivers’ standings, F1’s return to the States could very well determine the outcome of the championship.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight, said American actress and comedienne Phyllis Diller who passed away last August. Kimi Raikkonen has his way with curves, especially those in a Formula 1 track, and in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix he set the record straight.

He still won’t smile, though. Not even after claiming victory in Sunday's race leading Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Not even when he beat them driving a Lotus, a car that may be the surprise of the season, but surely doesn’t come close to the prancing horse, never mind the reigning champion’s car.

Monday, October 29, 2012

You lose some, you win some. Even McLaren with its Honda-powered MP4/4 driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who completely dominated the 1988 season, failed to win all 16 races.

After 11 straight wins, it lost to Ferrari. It then continued its streak, claiming a startling 15 wins out of 16 starts but by a strange twist of fate, the one it lost was on Scuderia’s home ground and, at the same time, the first Italian GP after Enzo Ferrari’s death…

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

News of the Greek government allocating nearly €30 million, pending Parliament ratification, to build a track that will comply with Formula 1 standards were quite a surprise, given the country’s current financial state.

If the Greek Parliament gives the green light, the new track will be built in Halandritsa, near the port of Patras in the Peloponnese.

When questioned by Carscoop, president of the Patras Autodrome consortium Evangelos Floratos said that, even though securing a Formula 1 Grand Prix is very difficult, there are many other forms of racing that could be hosted on the track.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Unlike past seasons, with four races still to go, predicting this year’s Formula 1 champion is, practically, impossible. That’s because consistency and outright performance are two variables that change greatly from one Grand Prix to another, not least because of their tires’ behavior.

The Korean GP that took place on Suday was yet another race that had most teams and their drivers struggling with tire performance.

Monday, October 8, 2012

This year, up until now, Fernando Alonso scored three wins in 14 races and apart from a single retirement in Belgium, he always finished with points. That’s the reason why, despite his Ferrari not being the fastest car on the grid, the two-time Formula 1 world champion was leading the 2012 driver’s championship.

At the Japanese Grand Prix that took place on Sunday morning at the Suzuka circuit, the Spaniard didn’t even make it past the first corner, retiring for the second time this season.

Right after the red lights went out signaling the start of the race, his Ferrari came in contact with Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and spun at turn one.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Even the best of plans sometimes don’t pan out. Having a seven-time Formula 1 world champion with 91 wins, 155 podium finishes, 68 pole positions and 77 fastest laps drive one of your cars is probably a wise move.

Mercedes GP certainly thought so; that’s why when Michael Schumacher, the most successful F1 driver of all times, decided that three years away from the tracks were more than he could handle and wanted to make a comeback in 2009, he was signed by the Silver Arrows despite being at the ripe age of 40.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Greece is the country that’s been hit the hardest by the debt crisis that has brought a lot of unrest in Europe, threatening even the existence of the Eurozone itself. For the past three years, successive governments have imposed heavy taxes and pay cuts to reduce the country’s debt, an effort that has yielded questionable results.

Yet it looks like a long dream of Greek car and motorsport fans may come true, even amidst the crisis. The Ministry of Development and Transportation has given the green light to begin construction of a Formula 1 track; all it remains for the works to begin is the ratifying of the project by the Greek Parliament.

Monday, October 1, 2012

You think that Formula 1 drivers have it easy, don’t you? Granted, they are much more talented behind the wheel than you and me, but they are at the top motorsport racing level, traveling around the world, gaining fortune and fame and then retiring at a comparatively young age to enjoy the rest of their life.

Evo’s Dickie Meaden thought along the same lines; that is, until he got the opportunity to drive a 1998 Ferrari F300 Formula 1 car that was used as a spare for then Scuderia drivers, Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Given his performance, which was well below his own very high standards, Michael Schumacher’s departure from Formula 1 after his comeback three years ago was not a surprise.

The same goes for the driver who will replace him at Mercedes GP from the next season: Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with McLaren was not in good terms (to put it nicely) and speculation about him moving to Mercedes had been circulating since the Italian GP.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The P1 design study for a modern day F1 may be all the talk these days, but McLaren has another new model up its sleeves, one that will be unveiled during the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.

The new car is the limited run MP4-12C "SGP Edition", of which only three examples will be built, each carrying a price tag of S$1.28 million or about US$1.05 million / €800,000. While that may sound like a lot of cash, the folks over at TeamSpeed reported that two cars have already been spoken for leaving only one up for grabs.

Mercedes-Benz has upgraded its F1 Safety Car replacing the SLS AMG with the newer SLS AMG GT. The GT evolution of the gull-wing model made its first appearance in a race situation at this month's 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix and will also be deployed at the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix. Read more »